BookWars
(October 1, 2000)
Color. 79 min. Jason Rosette, Camerado Prod.
Dist. by Transit Media Communications
22-D Hollywood Ave.,
Ho-Ho-Kus, NJ 07423
800-343-5540
SOCIAL SCIENCE
A labor of love that took many years to put together, this
film examines the plight of New York City street book
vendors, especially under Mayor Rudy Giuliani's Quality of
Life Program, designed to "clean up the streets." Rosette
was a neighborhood street book vendor before he began
working with a camera. The film starts out as a documentary
about the cast of characters who sell books from curbside
tables. Some are decidedly offbeat, some are streetwise
business tycoons, and some are street philosophers with a
love for literature and scholarly works.
The vendors sell low-priced, secondhand editions, legally
acquired through moving sales, estate sales, Friends of the
Library sales, and even other street vendors who are
leaving the trade. The film stresses this, since the
accusation that street literati are fencing stolen goods
has been laid on the table as a rationale for shutting them
down, along with their failure to collect sales tax. The
vendors point out that they provide cheap, high-quality
reading material to the masses, especially the poor.
The video is produced after the manner of cinema verite but
with an artist's touch. What results is a film that is
reflective, artistic without being contrived, and, most of
all, interesting from first frame to last. And why should
someone sitting in the Midwest care about an urban
documentary? Perhaps because BookWars is a compelling,
well-made film that raises larger issues about reading and
about what is and is not kept in print and on shelves in
more traditional distribution channels such as libraries
and bookstores.
The film asks questions about who controls the distribution
of published materials and who controls the cultural life
of the streets. This should interest all librarians, as
well as anyone concerned about urban life, books, and the
distribution of ideas contained in the pages of those
books. The story has implications far beyond what occurs on
the Lower East Side of New York City.
Recommended for medium to larger public and all academic
libraries.
-- Nancy Paul, Brandon P.L., WI